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History of the Bowman Programme

  • 1988 – Bowman feasibility studies launched.
  • 1993 - 1996 – Bowman Project definition stage. Two consortia, CROSSBOW headed by ITT and YEOMAN headed by Siemens Plessey Systems (SPS) and Racal.
  • 1996 – Collapse of the Bowman competition. Archer Communications Systems Limited (ACSL) joint venture company is formed by ITT, SPS and Racal.
  • 1997 – MOD made the decision to proceed with ACSL as prime Bowman contractor with maximum competition at the sub-contractor level.
  • October 1998 – Award of Bowman ‘Package 0’ (supply and support) contract to ACSL.
  • October 1999 – Equipment Approvals Committee (now the Investments Approvals Board) approved the continuation of Bowman Package 0 contract under the assumption of a de-scoped solution within acceptable time and cost boundaries.
  • December 1999 – MOD announced it planned to deliver the system incrementally. Initial deliveries of stand-alone Personal Role Radios (PRR) would now come before Bowman.
  • January 2000 – Contracts let to seek costed bid for Bowman fallback option.
  • July 2000 - Decision taken to re-launch the competition for the Bowman contract.
  • September 2001 - New Bowman contract signed with General Dynamics UK, then Computing Devices Canada, the Bowman Prime Contractor.
  • December 2002 - Ministers announce an extension to the Bowman contract to deliver the ComBAT battle management system, its associated infrastructure and the integrated capability for complex fighting platforms (collective known as CIP - ComBAT (Common Battlefield Application Toolset), Infrastructure and Platform Battlefield Information System Application (CIP)). The MOD sought to exploit the close linkage between the programmes by aligning the development and fielding of CIP with the Bowman programme.
  • July 2003 - 1 R ANGLIAN begin converting to Bowman.
  • December 2003 - The first Battalion Operational Field Trial took place.
  • March 2004 - The first Brigade Level Operational Field Trial took place.
  • March 2004 – Bowman (less CIP) declared In Service with provisos.
  • July 2004 - An additional Brigade level Operational Field Trial (OFT 1a) took place to reassess CIP.
  • 26 November – 4 December 2004 - The second Brigade Level Operational Field Trial took place.
  • December 2004 - CIP was granted Initial Acceptance as recommended by Acceptance and Release meeting 6 (A&R6), but failed to achieve full ISD.
  • February 2005 - Commander in Chief LAND’s decision to deploy elements of the Bowman communications system with 12 Mechanized Brigade to Iraq on Op TELIC 6.
  • March 2005 - Commander in Chief LAND accepted the recommendation to sanction training with Bowman in BATUS.